In a few short months at the start of 2025, the ways Queens residents have gotten and soon will get around changed radically. Odds on a casino kept improving. And there were also some somber goodbyes and remembrances for those lost.
January
A federal court ruled that the state could go ahead as planned and begin congestion pricing tolls on just about all vehicles that enter Manhattan at or south of 60th Street on Jan. 5. The stated aims are to raise $1 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital spending program; and to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in Midtown and Downtown Manhattan. The Trump administration opposes the tolls and multiple cases still are pending in federal court.
Supporters of Metropolitan Park, the plan to bring a casino and entertainment complex to the parking lot at Citi Field, far outnumbered opponents at a Jan. 8 meeting of the New York City Planning Commission.
Queens Future LLC, the partnership that includes Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock Cafe, Inc., wants 25 acres remapped and rezoned to allow construction of a casino, 2,300 hotel rooms, green space and a concert venue. Supporters including residents, business interest and labor unions. Opponents focused on environmental concerns; social ills associated with gambling; and increased strain on the area’s highway, water and sewer infrastructure.
A federal judge on. Jan. 8 granted former U.S. Rep. George Santos a brief delay of his sentencing for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sentencing was moved from Feb. 7 to April 25. He faced between two and 22 years in prison.
Elections at Community Board 7 Jan. 20 resulted in longtime Chairman Gene Kelty and longtime First Vice Chairman Chuck Apelian exchanging positions. The switch was made in deference to Kelty’s health struggles from working the pile as an FDNY fire chief in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Larry Penner, a well-known former federal transportation official, advocate, historian and writer who published frequent commentary on the city’s transportation and other issues died at 71 on Jan. 13 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Former Mets closer Billy Wagner was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Jan. 21.
A Kew Gardens Hills woman was charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 14 killing of her apartment building’s superintendent, who had been sent by the owner to collect back rent. Jose Portillo was 55.
Jeff Torborg, an ex-major league catcher who managed the New York Mets in 1992 and 1993, died Jan. 19. He was 83.
Melissa Rodriguez-Lopez of the Bronx was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Jan. 28 for killing a 62-year-old Uber passenger in May 2023. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Rodriguez-Lopez sped at 123 miles per hour while racing with others on the Whitestone Expressway, then fled the scene after causing the crash that later resulted in the death of Steven Spaulding of Brooklyn.
A virtual city Department of Transportation hearing on the controversial Queens Waterfront Greenway project on Jan. 28 locked people out after too many attempted to log in. The DOT is looking to connect Northeast Queens to the Long Island City waterfront via cycling and pedestrian trails.
The board of the MTA on Jan. 29 approved a redesign of the bus network that serves Queens.
February
Several hundred ushered in the Year of the Snake in the streets and on the sidewalks of Flushing on Feb. 1 as the Flushing Chinese Business Association hosted its annual Lunar New Year Parade.
The U.S. Justice Department on Feb. 10 ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Mayor Adams. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges first brought under the Biden administration.
Gov. Hochul was the keynote speaker on Feb. 9 at the at the annual legislative breakfast of the Queens Jewish Community Council. She recounted her visit to Israel in the days following the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, 2023.
A 79-year-old man was shot and killed outside the NYPD’s 111th Precinct station house in Bayside on Feb. 11 after allegedly pointing a loaded revolver at a police officer. Police said the officer and those answering his call for backup attempted to de-escalate the situation and repeatedly ordered the man to drop his gun. None of the officers were hurt.
The NYPD named Capt. Ramnauth Ramlochan as the new commanding officer of the 111th Precinct, which serves Northeast Queens. Ramlochan, a 19-year veteran joined the force in July 2005. He replaced Capt. Richard Porto, who was appointed commanding officer of the Auxiliary Division.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Feb. 13 announced that the first phase of the newly redesigned Queens bus network would launch on Sunday, June 29. The second phase would begin on Sunday, Aug. 31.
More than 60 Bayside residents braved icy winds and temperatures to protest the state’s approval of an adult-use marijuana shop at 215-46 39 Ave. Objections included the shop’s location in a residential neighborhood, and the state’s lack of consideration given to Community Board 11’s rejection of the application.
March
Disgraced former New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his candidacy for mayor on March 1. Cuomo was forced to resign in 2021 following sexual misconduct allegations and claims that he severely mishandled the Covid crisis.
Longtime civic leader and FDNY hero Gene Kelty of Whitestone lost his battle against cancer on March 16 at age 70. He served 39 years in the FDNY and on Community Board 7 for 40, with 29 of those years coming in two stints as chairman. Kelty served on the board of the Whitestone Boosters Civic Association for many decades and was elected to serve as president in 2005.
The City Council chose not to appeal the March 20 court ruling striking down its plan to let non-citizens vote in municipal elections.
The Chronicle won four awards at the New York Press Association’s annual spring conference held in Saratoga Springs.
Honors included first place in the Historical, Anniversary or Progress Editions category; and coverage of religion. Photographer Michael Shain won first place in the Picture Story category, for his photo spread on the Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill, curated and laid out on the page by Editor Kristen Guglielmo. The Chronicle also came in second place in the Best Editorial Page category, for work mostly done by Editor-in-Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone and Production Manager Gregg Cohen.
The St. John’s Red Storm, 31-5 and seeded No. 2 in the NCAA’s West bracket, lost to 10th-seeded Arkansas 75-66, om March 22, bowing out of the NCAA tournament in the second round.
Former Queens Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran was arrested at Miami International airport on March 29 after a search of his phone and iPad allegedly turned up hundreds of child pornography images. Halloran, who served in the Council from 2010 to 2013, also was convicted on federal corruption charges in 2014 for his role as a middle man between former Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Republican Party leaders in Smith’s attempt to get on the Republican mayoral ballot in 2013. Halloran served six years of a 10-year sentence.
State Sen. John Liu (D-Bayside) announced on March 30 that he would introduce a bill to alienate the parkland on which Mets owner Steve Cohen and partners want to build a casino. He also secured a commitment from the project’s backers to fund “Flushing Skypark,” a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that would span Flushing Creek and connect Downtown Flushing from 39th Avenue and College Point Boulevard to Willets Point. State Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Jackson Heights), in whose district most of the parking lot sits, had repeatedly refused to submit the bill, which was necessary to convey the land for private use.
April
Just a day after his corruption charges were dismissed on April 2, Mayor Adams announced that he would run for reelection as an independent candidate.
Not quite four years after Tropical Storm Ida killed 11 Queens residents, city, state and federal officials sounded the alarm over federal budget cuts announced on April 4 that they said would shut down three flood mitigation projects in the borough. The cuts, according to Hochul’s office, include $50 million for flood mitigation in East Elmhurst, $46.6 million along the Kissena corridor and $47 million in Corona.
A crowd of more than 100 people braved rain and temperatures in the 30s on April 12 to march from Honey Locust Park at the Manhattan end of the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge to Queens Plaza South to protest the Adams administration’s repeated delays in opening the outermost Queensbound lane on the lower deck as a pedestrian pathway. Mayor Adams officially relented on May 18.
Three men died and three firefighters were hurt Easter Sunday in a house fire on Chevy Chase Street in Jamaica Estates. FDNY officials said firefighters encountered blocked stairs, blocked exits and no evidence of working smoke detectors.
Members of the College Point Civic & Taxpayers Association on April 24 sounded the alarm over plans by the New York City Economic Development Corp. to open almost 30 arces of land at the old Flushing Airport to housing development. The 80-acre site served as an airport from 1927 to 1982.
CPCTA members said wetlands on the site act as natural filters for the environment, aside from providing habitats for various animals and plants. The site also sits atop a freshwater aquifer that the city could tap for water in an unforeseen emergency, something speakers said should not be put at risk by development.
EDC representatives have stated that there are rigorous city, state and federal regulations to protest wetlands and other natural resources with which them must comply to undertake any project.
George Santos was sentenced on April 25 to 87 months in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. It would not be the end of the story.
The field for three downstate casino licenses fell from 11 to nine in late April, with Las Vegas Sands, which hoped to build a casino at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, and Saks Global, which wanted to place one atop its Fifth Avenue location, pulling out. Metropolitan Park and Resorts World in Queens remained at the table.
May
The scaffolding that had encased the 1868 Poppenhusen Institute in College Point for almost a year during renovations came down in the first week of May.
The idea of extending 132nd Street in College Point through the old Flushing Airport had been talked about for decades. It became a reality after a ribbon-cutting on May 12, with drivers now able to travel 0.7 miles north and south between 20th and 23rd avenues. At 23rd Avenue, the southern end of the 132nd Street extension becomes Linden Place.
On May 17 the city co-named a street corner at the intersection of 58th Avenue and 189th Street in Fresh Meadows as Christine Haider Way in honor of the former chair of Community Board 11, who served the group for more than 30 years. She died in 2023 at age 75.
The city announced on May 29 that Whitestone’s waterfront will be the site of a memorial to the city’s members of the military who have lost their lives since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. “Flames of Honor” will be incorporated into the Utopia Parkway Seawall Replacement and Street Improvements project.
The city Department of Transportation on May 29 made a pair of major presentations to the Transportation Committee of Community Board 8. The Hillside Avenue Bus Priority Project would eliminate two of the four travel lanes on Hillside — one in each direction — between Springfield and Queens boulevards, replacing them with bus lanes. The second detailed plans to install 47 high-density scooter corrals and scooter parking spaces to help remedy the unpopular practice of riders discarding them on any convenient street corner, sidewalk or driveway apron.
The city on May 31 co-named the corner of Union Street and 22nd Avenue in Flushing Arthur O’Meally Place to honor the longtime civic leader and community advocate. He was an active member of the North Flushing Civic Association and was active for years with Community Board 7, the Queens Historical Society and the Flushing branch of the NAACP.
June
Twenty-five members of the FDNY who work or live in Queens were among those honored at City Hall Plaza on June 4 at the department’s annual Medal Day ceremony.
The Queens Botanical Garden broke ground on June 16 for the $34 million Joan N. and Norman Bluestone Education Center. It will have four indoor classrooms that can be transformed into one larger space, a teaching kitchen and a teaching solarium where plants will be grown and maintained for educational purposes. It is expected to open in spring 2027.
Ron Taylor, a relief pitcher who earned a save for the Miracle Mets in the 1969 World Series vs. the Baltimore Orioles, died June 16 after a long illness. He was 87.
Seven teenagers were indicted in the May 2 attack in Kissena Park that left two other teenagers seriously hurt. The cases were referred to the Youth Part of Supreme Court.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria) shook up city politics in the Democratic Mayoral primary on June 24 with a decisive victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor. He would go on to face Republican Curtis Sliwa, Mayor Adams and Cuomo again in the general election.
A former Queens doctor pleaded guilty on June 30 to multiple counts of rape and sexual abuse for assaulting women with whom he was acquainted in his Astoria apartment as well as female patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital where he worked as a gastroenterologist. Zhi Alan Cheng, 35, drugged the victims and recorded multiple incidents.